The Saucelito Creek Wildlife Refuge (SCWR) native plant restoration project began in April 2018 when we started clearing out French Broom. Our first planting was in December 2018, and as of the end of 2022 we have 160 native plants from 54 species.

End of Year	Total Plants	Species
2018	30	21
2019	56	24
2021	105	35
2022	160	54

Back to Native Plant Restoration.

See new plants added in 2022.

To see photos of some of the local native plants that inspire our plant selection, see Marin Headlands – April 2022.

Overview of The Restoration Site

We have constructed two temporary pens for deer protection that will stay up until the plants are established. We put up the first pen in December 2018 and the second in August 2019. In 2020, we filled in both pens, and in 2021 we delayed additional planting because of the drought. The 2018 Pen is located in part of the area we cleared of French Broom, and the 2019 Pen is in the middle of one-quarter acre of invasive Himalayan Blackberry topped with equally invasive Cape Ivy. For the next seven years or so, we plan on clearing about 1000 square feet and adding about 50 native plants each year.

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The 2018 Pen

The 2018 pen is 20′ by 25′ (500 sf), and contains 42 plants: 8 Pacific Aster, 6 Pink Seathrift, 4 Pink Flowering Currant, 4 Western Goldenrod, 2 Creeping Oregon Grape, 2 Grey Rush, 2 Evening Primrose, 2 Snowberry, 1 Quail Bush, 1 Bee’s Bliss Sage, 1 Yarrow, 1 California Fuchsia, 1 Seaside Daisy, 1 Coyote Mint, 1 Common Woolly Sunflower, 1 Blue Wildrye, 1 Blueblossom Ceanothus, 1 Anchor Point Ceanothus, 1 Hummingbird Sage, 1 Whirly Blue Sage.

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The 2019 Pen

The 2019 pen is 30′ by 25′ (600 sf), and contains 44 plants: 13 Yarrow, 8 Seaside Daisy, 4 Pink Flowering Currant, 4 Silver Bush Lupine, 3 Common Woolly Sunflower, 3 California Fuchsia, 2 Coyote Mint, 2 Western Goldenrod, 1 California Buckeye, 1 Valley Oak, 1 Evening Primrose, 1 Ceanothus ‘Concha’, and 1 Purple Sage ‘Amethyst Bluff’.

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There are 17 native plants outside the two pens: 4 Douglas Iris, 2 Marsh Gumplant, 2 Valley Oak, 2 Franciscan Manzanita, 1 Coffeeberry, 1 Buck Brush, 1 Blueblossom Ceanothus, 1 Huckleberry, 1 Mulefat, 1 Marsh Baccharis, and 1 Blue Elderberry.

Wildlife

The SCWR’s 30 Arroyo Willow and 30 Coast Live Oak provide excellent habitat for about 100 species of nesting and migratory birds. The SCWR has also been home to 5 Mule deer bucks since 2019 (the two youngest joined in 2021). Coyote occassionally show up during the day, but they mostly visit late at night when their howling can be heard in the nearby neighborhood. Squirrels run through the oak trees, 18 dusky-footed woodrat nests are on the site, and fox have been seen occasionally and captured by motion-activated cameras. We’ve observed evidence of raccoons and other small mammals as well. The larger mammals visit from the nearby 15 acre Cypress Ridge open space to access the creek that runs behind the Willow trees.